We made it to the final Laredo Theater Guild International (LTGI) production of Annie at the LCC Guadalupe and Lillia Martinez Fine Arts Center.  We were nervous about taking small children to a play, but were surprised at how well they did!  The auditorium was packed with people- the only time that you heard the chirping of children was during the longer stretches between song and dance.

My youngest was excited to see the huge auditorium and closed curtains.  He couldn’t wait for the gigantic puppet show to start.  When Annie finished singing “The Sun’ll Come Out, Tomorrow!”, my son looked up at me and said through his pacifier, “You can’t do that.”  True, kid.  Thanks for that.  I only ended up crawling on my hands and knees twice before intermission looking for a dropped pacifier.  If you take small kids with short attention spans, you’d do well to bring a quiet and distracting item.  Thankfully, my husband’s Harley-Davidson catalog kept my motorhead 2-year old son quiet during the talking parts when he felt compelled to jump on the springy auditorium seats.

(Photo courtesy of LTGI Facebook Page)

It was impressive!  The cast and orchestra were awesomely talented!  Everyone was fantastic!   Annie, played by Andrea Diaz, was adorable and she sang the role perfectly.  My family couldn’t get over how talented six-year old Olivia Glass was as Molly-  She sang and danced like a pro, and so young!  I recognized Isabella Rodriguez- she sang the National Anthem at the Imaginarium 4th of July Parade earlier this month.   Melissa Barrerra Gonzalez made Ms. Hannigan as detestable and hilarious as I remember- and I think our favorite, favorite was Daddy Warbucks, Dr. Fritz Gechter.  Wow.  Can that man sing and act.  Seriously.  He can really sing.  The whole production was fabulous.  The whole cast, very talented.

(Photo courtesy of LTGI Facebook Page)

We can’t wait to see more plays here in this small city-  I’m sad that we missed the Laredo Little Theater (LLT) production of “Rapunzel, Let Your Hair Down” this time, but we’ll try to make more plays put on by LLT and LTGI.

There was a part of the play today that reminded me of what’s it’s like to live in a small border city like Laredo.  Annie’s character is known for her glass half-full perspective and there was a scene where she had happened upon a cynical soup line where she tried to convey that there was good in every situation.

A Hobo:   “What about empty pockets?”

  Annie:  “At least you have pockets.”

  Another Hobo:  “What about freezing fingers?”

Annie:  “Good thing you have empty pockets!”

The Third Hobo:  “How about using newspapers for a blanket?”

Annie:  “Well, you can always read in bed!”

That reminded me of how it is to live here.  We can all read the negative stories.  And we can all lament our place in small city lacking the huge amenities available elsewhere.  But the positives?

We saw a class-act play today, put on by super talented citizens from right next door.   We showed up five minutes before the play started and departed as fast.  Try doing that in Houston.  And the most delightful thing?  Once I could see past the bald head on stage, I remembered that we shared a sale plot with a  man with a nice full head of hair at a community yard sale last year that we knew only as “Fritz”.  We had NO idea what kind of talent he possessed as we mutually complained about how no one wanted to buy our junk.  Pleasant surprises.

Great play.  Great day!